Teaching about Scams

It was with interest that I listened to another staff member tell me about the interesting email he had recieved inviting him to take part in a survey with one of or largest grocery chains in Australia. Thinking this could be interesting to share with my classes to teach authenticity of websites, I shared it with my classes this week -even my grade 4/5 ICT class. It worked really well with students enthausiastically sifting through the pluses, minuses and interesting components. (The active link has been removed so that others may not be mislead).

You have been selected to access the Woolworths 5 questions Survey and win a $50.00 gift certificate.

Please click here and complete the form to receive your reward. Thank you.

This is an automated message. Please do not reply.Message Id: 0019268154-wmrtsrv.

PYWQEUWXQXLBDRVUQLBYRPCIIHHCHZPYILFRNY

Here is what it looked like:

I printed off the email msg below and got some classes to read the email and highlight anything that caught their attention. What was interesting, what was a little concerning etc. We then discussed as a class.

With another group, they drew up a table in MS Word with the headings plus, minus and interesting. Under each heading they added their findings. They were given 5 minutes to do this. Then discussed as a group.

We also discussed why the clickable link was a potentially dangerous option. I did click on the link after warning them. This took me to the survey form. Below are two screen shots of the actual survey. Students read this, then talked about the interesting aspects of it and the authenticity of the site.

There were so many discussion points arising from this email

authentication

personal identity

how to protect personal identity

potential dangers of clickable links

scams, phish, potential outcomes of clicking on suspicious links

vulnerable people etc

Please feel free to use the screen grabs, but take care with any clickable link and do not submit that survey form or click on next.

About Me

G'day! I am a secondary teacher in a small rural prep to year 12 school in Australia. I teach Information Technology and Accounting and am passionate about learning, immersing technology in the classroom, rural education and global education.
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